Herman Melville Books
In his own lifetime Melville was best known for Typee, his fictional accounts of Polynesian life; Moby Dick sold badly and was berated for its "crazy" English and its "ravings" - as Melville put it, "a Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it. Warn all gentle fastidious people from so much as peeping into the book - on danger of a lumbago and sciatics." Joseph Conrad after described it as "a somewhat strained rhapsody with whaling for a subject and not a single genuine line in the three volumes of it". But its mix of symbolism, actions and philosophy coupled with absolute volume and stylistic innovation had an enormous influence on the American novel. His sexuality has also been much discussed; the posthumously published Billy Budd came in at 13 on a listing of the finest 100 gay books.